Steam Controller with BLE not detected by steam

I used to be able to play games with Steam Controller via BLE previously. I was away from home for a couple of months and after that, I haven’t been able to, presumably after updating my system.

I can pair my controller to computer Steam+Y and later I connect using Steam+B. The system shows it is connected. If I connect using a Micro-USB cable, steam shows the device properly and I can play games. But if I switch to BLE, steam does not recognize the device. Steam also gets stuck when I click on Controller Settings for few minutes and sometimes crashes.

udev rules were missing. I have updated it as per Steam Controller known issues and platform-specific notes :: Steam Controller Technical Support/Troubleshooting

It is not a problem with the controller or my system. is there any way to find out if steam is unable to detect Bluetooth devices?

Which rules? Between what’s provided by steam-manjaro and game-devices-udev, there shouldn’t be anything missing in theory. Check the Udev rules in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/.

99-steam-controller-perms.rules was not present in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d, but I added it with the following.

 # This rule is needed for basic functionality of the controller in Steam and keyboard/mouse emulation
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# This rule is necessary for gamepad emulation; make sure you replace 'pgriffais' with a group that the user that runs Steam belongs to
KERNEL=="uinput", MODE="0660", GROUP="pgriffais", OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput"

# Valve HID devices over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# Valve HID devices over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*28DE:*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05c4", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 wireless adapter over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ba0", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="09cc", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:05C4*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:09CC*", MODE="0666"

# Nintendo Switch Pro Controller over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2009", MODE="0666"

# Nintendo Switch Pro Controller over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*057E:2009*", MODE="0666"

I also tried renaming it to 60-steam-controller-perms.rules based on this Rename /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules · Issue #5169 · ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux · GitHub
Also tried using the proposed fix. Reverted back as it did not make any difference.

I didn’t mean the filename(s), I meant the rules within. Those are already present.

I just realized I didn’t follow the instruction

This rule is necessary for gamepad emulation; make sure you replace ‘pgriffais’ with a group that the user that runs Steam belongs to

Updated the group, but that did not make any difference

While the controller is connected via bluetooth, if I click on “Controller Settings”, steam freezes for a few minutes and then crashes. Is there some way to find out what is causing the crash?

Did you logout / login after?

Run steam from the terminal and reproduce the issue. There should be some sort of related error.

I did logout and also restarted

Thanks. I will try this first next time.
I didn’t copy everything. Even before I opened big picture and went to controller settings I saw this.

  Local Device Found
  type: 28de 1106
  path: /dev/hidraw4
  serial_number: de:e9:6d:0a:c1:67 - 0
  Manufacturer: 
  Product:      SteamController
  Release:      0
  Interface:    -1

Controller uses V2 HID protocol
!! Steam controller device opened for index 0.
Steam Controller reserving XInput slot 0
Controller 0 connected, configuring it now...
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1621394999)
Disconnecting zombie controller 0
Scheduled disconnect of controller 0
Warning, couldn't get controller details for SC, PID=4358
CGetControllerInfoWorkItem::RunFunc: Read failure.
Warning, couldn't get controller details for SC, PID=4358
CGetControllerInfoWorkItem::RunFunc: Read failure.
Local Device Found
  type: 28de 1106
  path: /dev/hidraw4
  serial_number: de:e9:6d:0a:c1:67 - 0
  Manufacturer: 
  Product:      SteamController
  Release:      0
  Interface:    -1

Controller uses V2 HID protocol
!! Steam controller device opened for index 0.
Steam Controller reserving XInput slot 0
Controller 0 connected, configuring it now...
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1621394999)
Disconnecting zombie controller 0
Scheduled disconnect of controller 0
Warning, couldn't get controller details for SC, PID=4358
CGetControllerInfoWorkItem::RunFunc: Read failure.
Warning, couldn't get controller details for SC, PID=4358
CGetControllerInfoWorkItem::RunFunc: Read failure.

https://www.gitmemory.com/issue/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/7697/793988969

Looks like the problem might be with Bluetooth controller. Unfortunately, I don’t have another one to test and due to lockdown, I can’t purchase one either.

I tried using GitHub - kozec/sc-controller: User-mode driver and GTK3 based GUI for Steam Controller and it works fine.
Going to try to find a way to downgrade the driver. Is there any other driver that I can use?

What driver?

Ignore that please. I have no idea what to do next.

Bump, because I’m having the same exact issue and don’t know what to do. I’ve lost the physical dongle for the controller so the only way to connect is Bluetooth, any help is appreciated.

This issue is tracked here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/7697. There are basically 3 things you can do:

  1. Wait for this issue to be solved, which might finally happen as devs finally looked into it.
  2. Downgrade BlueZ to 5.55 or older
  3. Use my workaround mentiond in comments of linked issue.
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This seems to have been fixed based on the issue tracker shared by @Komoszek . I had to change my SSD so the issue got fixed after fresh install.

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